Mouthpiece for breathing apparatus



sept. s, 1964 J. Y. COUSTEAU ETAL MOUTHPIECE FOR BREATHING APPARATUSFiled Oct. 28, 1960 UnitedStates Patent O 3,147,752 MOUTHFIIECE FORBREAT NG APPARATUS Jacques Y. Cousteau, Paris, France, and EmileGagnant, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, assignors to La Spirotechnique FiledGet. 28, 196i), Ser. No. 65,729 Claims priority, application France Nov.36, 1959 4 Claims. (Cl. 12S-147) The present invention relates to animprovement to the mouthpieces used in breathing apparatuses,particularly in underwater breathing apparatuses.

It is known that such mouthpieces are usually connected on the one handto the divers mouth through a Short lateral conduit and on the otherhand to a demand air regulator through an inhalation hose and to anexpiration valve to ambient environment through an expiration hose, eachone of said hoses being connected to one end of the mouthpiece.

During the operation of the breathing apparatus provided with suchmouthpiece, when the carrier of the apparatus inhalates, the demandregulator admits to the inhalation hose an air flow which is to undergoa 90 degrees alteration of course before arriving to the carriers mouth.A slight excess of pressure is created by this air speed into theexpiration hose, so that the pressure near the expiration valve isslightly above the pressure of the air delivered to the diver. This canresult in an air leak through the expiration valve during inhalation.

Such leaks are particularly observed with the breathing apparatuses ofthe injection type, Where the pressurized air coming from the regulatorarrives at the end of the inhalation hose then flows through said hoseat a high speed, thus producing an excess of pressure in said hose.

The mouthpiece of this invention is an improvement on U.S. Patent number2,875,756 assigned to the same assignee.

The mouthpiece according to the invention allows to eliminate the abovementioned disadvantages as well as air leaks through the expirationvalve during inhaiation, while giving to the apparatus carrier animproved ease of breathing. It is characterized in that a deector istted on to the mouthpiece wall, facing the short conduit to the mouth,to deviate the inhalated air ow over to said mouth conduit.

This deflector can have varied shapes. It can be a bent baffle-platefitted tangentially or nearly tangentially to the inside Wall ofmouthpiece and whose free end is close to the end of the mouth conduit,or else a straight battle-plate, fitted to said wall in front of themouth conduit. The end of said baffle-plate is preferably at rightangles to the cross-section of the mouth conduit, but it can also beoblique over said cross-section.

Some examples of varied mouthpieces according to the invention andillustrated in the accompanying drawing are given hereunder, beingunderstood vthat the invention may be embodied otherwise than asspecifically described.

FIG. 1 illustrates the mouthpiece of this invention in relation toassociated equipment in a breathing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a section of mouthpiece provided with a deector Whose end isat right angles to the mouth conduit.

FIG. 3 is a section of mouthpiece provided with a transversalbathe-plate in front of the mouth conduit.

FIG. 4 is a section of mouthpiece provided with a deflector Whose sidesmake some angle with the center-line of the mouth conduit.

FIG. 1 diagrammatically represents in section a portion of a breathingapparatus which portion comprises a mouthpiece 1, 2 which is providedfor purposes of illustration with a deector 6 more particularlydescribed and illustrated with respect to FIGS. 2 to 4 inclusive. The

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branches of the mouthpiece 1, 2 are connected by expiration hose S to anair regulator 20 which in turn is connected by a tube 22 to a primaryair regulator or a pressurized air tank, not shown, an inhalation hose 4joins the other branch of the mouthpiece 1, 2 to regulator 20. Theexpiration valve 26 located in close proximity to the diaphragm ofregulator 20 functions as is described in U.S. Patent Number 2,875,756.

The mouthpiece of this invention illustrated in FIGS. 2 to 4 inclusivecomprises a cylindrical casing 1, laterally connected to the mouthconduit 2 provided with rubber parts 3 to facilitate its holding by theusers teeth. This mouthpiece is connected to the demand regulatorthrough a rubber inhalation hose, whose end 4 is shown on the figures ofthe drawing, and to the expiration valve through a rubber flexibleexpiration hose. A detlector 6 such as a bent battle-plate ttedtangentially to the inside wall of said cylindrical casing or a straightthin- Walled battle-plate or a wedge type deector, directs the iiow ofinhaled air to the users mouth, as shown by the continuous line arrow.This deilector may possibly be supported by an inner sleeve 7, as shownin FIG. 3. The breathed out air ilows to the expiration hose as shown bythe dotted line arrow. Said deector may also not occupy the wholecross-section area of casing 1; as shown in FIG. 4, some distance can beprovided between the end of the deilector and the end of the mouthconduit, so long as this distance is small enough not to impair thedeflection ofthe air ilow.

What we claim is:

1. In a breathing apparatus of the open cycle type comprising amouthpiece means connected by an inhalation air hose to a demand airregulator particularly of the injection type and connected by anexpiration air hose to an exhaust valve, the improvement comprising saidmouthpiece means being integrally formed as a T-pipe junction forminginhalation and expiration conduits, said inhalation and expirationconduits being aligned and connected to form opposed branches of saidT-pipe junction means, the third branch of said T-pipe junction forminga common mouthpiece conduit of said T-pipe junction, and a deilectormeans being positioned transversely of substantially the wholecross-section of the conduit and extending between said inhalation andexpiration conduits to direct air flow from the inhalation conduittoward the mouthpiece conduit and permit the escape of air from saidmouthpiece conduit to said expiration conduit.

2. In a breathing apparatus according to claim l, Wherein the deflectoris a bent bathe-plate tted tangentially upon the inside wall of theopposed branches of the T-pipe junction.

3. In a breathing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detiectoris a straight bale perpendicular to the inside wall of the opposedbranches of the T-pipe junction.

4. In a breathing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the end of thedeilector is approximately perpendicular to the cross-section of themouthpiece conduit.

References Cited in the iile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,362,775 Sebouh Nov. 14, 1944 2,865,369 Kline Dec. 23, 1958 FOREIGNPATENTS 8,154 Great Britain 1907 288,430 Germany Nov. 1, 1915 733,473Great Britain July 13, 1955

1. IN A BREATHING APPARATUS OF THE OPEN CYCLE TYPE COMPRISING AMOUTHPIECE MEANS CONNECTED BY AN INHALATION AIR HOSE TO A DEMAND AIRREGULATOR PARTICULARLY OF THE INJECTION TYPE AND CONNECTED BY ANEXPIRATION AIR HOSE TO AN EXHAUST VALVE, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING SAIDMOUTHPIECE MEANS BEING INTERGRALLY FORMED AS A T-PIPE JUNCTION FORMINGINHALATION AND EXPIRATION CONDUITS SAID INHALATION AND EXPIRATIONCONDUITS BEING ALIGNED AND CONNECTED TO FORM OPPOSED BRANCHES OF SAIDT-PIPE JUNCTION MEANS, THE THIRD BRANCH OF SAID T-PIPE JUNCTION FORM-